‘Candy Man’ Dean Corll was shot 48 years ago. Texas EquuSearch will soon begin searching for the remains of any additional victims

48 years ago, Dean Corll, one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, was shot dead in his Pasadena, Texas home. Texas EquuSearch announced on Sunday that it would begin searching for the remains of any additional victims soon.

Between 1970 and 1973, Dean Corll murdered at least 28 young boys in the Houston area. The murders have been dubbed the Houston Mass Murders, and at the time they were considered the worst serial murders in US history.

Corll, an electrician and former candy store owner (hence his nickname), enlisted the help of teenagers David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley to lure other boys into his apartment, where they were handcuffed and shackled to a plywood torture board before being sexually assaulted. and killed, according to the Associated Press.

Corll’s killing ended on August 8, 1973 when, during a violent brawl at Corll’s home, accomplice Henley shot Corll several times with a .22 caliber pistol.

A d

It was then that Henley confessed to the police everything he knew and led the police to the graves of the dead. Jack Cato, a reporter from KPRC 2, accompanied Henley and the police as Henley led them to a hangar where he and Corll had buried some of the murder victims. Cato allowed Henley to call her mother on her phone and videotaped the conversation. Henley is heard saying the words “Mom, I killed Dean” into the receiver.

Corll’s known victims were found in mass graves located in the Greater Houston area. Four bodies were buried in San Augustine near Lake Sam Rayburn in eastern Texas; seven were buried on High Island Beach in Southeast Texas; and 17 were buried in a Houston boathouse in Corll, according to the Associated Press.

Some had ropes wrapped around their necks and duct tape around their feet and mouths and a few had been sexually mutilated, according to the Associated Press. Most of the bodies were poorly decomposed and difficult to identify.

A d

Henley and Brooks were both convicted for their roles in the Houston mass murders. Henley is serving six consecutive life sentences. Brooks died in a Galveston prison hospital in May 2020 due to complications from COVID-19, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Texas EquuSearch estimates that a significant number of young Corll victims have yet to be found. Henley himself admitted that not all of the killer’s victims were found, according to Texas EquuSearch.

“In fact, they killed so many … that the heartless predators couldn’t remember exactly where they had placed the victims,” ​​a statement from Texas EquuSearch read.

The Texas-based search and recovery organization said it will soon begin working with investigators from the Pasadena Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to search for additional victims.

A d

“We have been researching the murders very intensely over the past few months, and we believe there is a good chance that we can find and recover some of the boys who are still missing,” the organization said in a statement. .

The organization held a press conference on Sunday outside the storage building where several of Corll’s victims were found buried in 1973.

Following:

Former henchman of one of Houston’s most notorious serial killers dies of COVID-19

3 prolific Houston serial killers whose crimes shocked the city

8 notorious places in Houston area plagued by suicides, murders and deaths